cabin safety for babies

[flapsforty]

knobbygb, infant belts are more capable of withstanding higher g-forces than parental arms. However loving, desperate or otherwise worthy the parent may be.
A baby flying around the cabin at high speed will not only meet a fatal end, it will also pose a real danger to other people.
But even with the balt, the probable jack-knife action of the parental body will not have a good effect on the lap-child.

All in all, belts better than not, but car safety seat even better. All comes down to a question of probablitlities and money really.....

Of course parents should be allowed to travel with their kids. And of course some kids scream so much that they pose a mental health hazard for those forced to share an aircraft cabin with them.
And of course some people should never have been allowed to breed in the first place, since they do not have the first clue of how to socialise their offspring. But that's another matter entirely.....

Had a company pilot, his FA wife and their 3 kids traveling with us a few weeks back. The two eldest were noisy, rambunctious, incredibly rude to the cabin crew and annoyed the other pax. The toddler was allowed to stand on the seats in his muddy booties, scream everytime something wasn't right, crawl through the aisle dfuring food service and had a nappyu change on the seat instead of the specially provided nappy changing table in the loo. The parents watched it all with fond smiles.
Even if it was only Amsterdam-Nice, I'd had enough after 30 minutes. Had a quick visit with the Captain. After which said pilot also had a quick visit with the Captain. He left the cockpit looking a great deal less bushy tailed & the kid's behavious improved dramatically.
No fond goodbyes for the cabin crew when they disembarked though.

Sparklygirl if you really want to find out, why not write to the JAA, their addy is:

THE EUROPEAN JOINT AVIATION AUTHORITIES
Saturnusstraat 8-10 PO Box 3000
2130 KA Hoofddorp The Netherlands

Fax no: (31) (0) 23-5621714

PS YES I have kids. And have traveled with them from when they were 6 weeks old. On staff tickets, so I made bl**dy sure that they never annoyed anyone, always looked impeccable and behaved like little angels. (yes they cried, but parents armed with breats, bottles, pacifiers and what not, so never for long)
They are now teenagers and as a result of life long maternal terror & brainwash, they still go into perfect-traveler mode as soon as they enter an aircraft.
They even look halfway way human when dressed according to staff-travel rules. Flying brings out the best in them, and only on an aircraft do Mr40 and I ever experience that warm glow of having actually managed to raise pleasant human beings instead of incomprehensible savages. (normal present day teenagers)